In Photo: Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. points to the map where the alleged clash between elite police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos and Muslim rebels took place on January 25, during a news conference on February 4 at the AFP headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City. Catapang maintained that proper coordination could have made a difference in the incident, which resulted in the killings of 44 commandos, the worst combat loss in a single day in recent memory.
THE killings of 44 police commandos are degenerating into a nasty war of words between the Philippine National Police and the military, as no less than the relieved commander of the Special Action Force (SAF) belying claims they did not give the locations of pinned commandos so that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) can send reinforcements.
Director Getulio Napeñas Jr., relieved commander of the SAF, also denied the statement of Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. that they did not coordinate with the military for the police operations against Jema’ah Islamiyah leader Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Abu Marwan, and JI-trained bomb maker Abdul Bassit Usman.
Napenas, who was relieved of his post as a result of the bloody operations, said he could not keep silent when the honor of the “SAF commander and the whole SAF is already being destroyed.”
But the relieved commander avoided passing judgment, and urged waiting for the results of the investigation being conducted by the PNP Board of Inquiry.
“It will not be my words against the words of General Catapang. It will be the results of the Board of Inquiry,” Napeñas, said adding that the results should come along or be backed by evidence and documents.
The absence of a supposed coordination by the SAF with the military was the reason the AFP was unable to send reinforcements on time to the commandos under enemy fire. This was claimed by military officials, and even by the probe that was also conducted by the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, under Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan.
Napenas spoke less than an hour after Catapang briefed reporters on the results of their probe, which centered on whether soldiers appropriately responded to the call for help by the commandos.
Catapang declared during the news briefing: “There is no shortcoming on the part of the AFP.”
The chief of staff added that the killed commandos sealed their fate after they, or their superiors, failed to coordinate with the military for the operation.
“That’s the price we have to pay for not having a well-coordinated operation,” he said, as he defended the actions of soldiers before and even during the time that the policemen were fighting guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“There is a need to coordinate, because you are going to enter an area of the MILF,” Catapang said.
He said that, aside from the 105th Base Command of the MILF, the area is also populated by the 118th and 106th Base Commands of the same Moro group, the MILF and even private armed groups.
Catapang also admitted that the members of the pinned 55th Special Action Company are not also familiar with their coordinates. “It is up to them to give their coordinates.”
He said the soldiers could not reinforce the being mowed-down commandos because they do not know the area. And when members of the 62nd Division Reconnaissance Company and the 8th Mechanized Battalion finally moved in, they were met with volleys of fire, according to Catapang.
A tire of a V-150 and the other mechanized assets of the military were even hit by the enemy, he added.
“But we don’t know where the [line of] fire [was] coming from.”
However, Napeñas said the military knew the “continuing” operation even months before the January 25 operation.
“We even gave them the coordinates of the engaged commandos at the time the fighting has barely began,” he added.
They also coordinated with the military “before and during the operation,” Napeñas said.
He added that, as the commandos were battling the swarming bandits, they sent the coordinates of the pinned police forces to PNP Officer in Charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina.
Napeñas said Espina forwarded the information to Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command commander Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, who is his classmate at the Philippine Military Academy.
The coordinates were also known by Army brigade commander Col. Gener de Leon, who was even inside the tactical command post where Napeñas and other SAF officials were directly monitoring the operation, and it was also forwarded to Pangilinan, Napeñas said.
No less than Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin earlier said that the engaged commandos coordinated with military units in the area on their way to their objective.
Napeñas admitted that suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima knew the whole operation.
Espina also admitted in his news briefing that while he knew about the operation, he was not informed of its period of execution.
The relieved SAF director said that the SAF operation began in April last year.
On two occasions, we even sought the help of the military, including a request for a helicopter, but these were not acted upon, Espina earlier said. He added the military even launched an operation against Marwan on June 10, 2014.
That operation also failed to bag Marwan and prompted his to transfer to Pidsadawan in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, Espina said.
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/saf-44-killings-turn-into-pnp-afp-word-war/
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